


tether

by reachedthebitterend



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 09:34:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23969197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reachedthebitterend/pseuds/reachedthebitterend
Summary: of alien bonds and humans
Relationships: Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Comments: 2
Kudos: 93





	tether

**Author's Note:**

> posted on tumblr on 02/06/20

Michael knows the second that Isobel gets lost because her face loses the furrowed brow of concentration, and her lips part slightly, and her fingers go slack, falling from where she had her hand pressed against Max’s forehead as she tips forward in her chair into Max’s chest and passes out.

Michael is moving before Liz and Kyle can even begin to ask what happened.

He squats down beside Isobel and tries to wake her up, shaking her shoulder.

“Izzy,” he says, voice coming out a little urgently, but Isobel just keeps breathing deeply and evenly, deep in sleep. Just like Max.

“Fuck,” he breathes and gets back to his feet looking at Liz and Kyle who are looking at him expectantly.

“She’s in deep sleep, just like Max is.”

They all turn to look at the sleeping siblings.

“What are we going to do now?” Liz asks after a few minutes of silence.

Michael inhales deeply and moves to go sit on the chair on Max’s other side. “I guess that means it’s my turn to try.”

“Wait,” Liz says putting her arm out so that he bumps into it, stopping him. “What if you get lost too?”

Michael exhales roughly, and drags a hand through his hair, making it even more frizzy and out of control.

“What else can we do? Just leave them like that, and hope they find their way out?” He demands, tone maybe a bit too aggressive.

Liz just stands her ground, face set in stone.

“I know you’re not taking that tone with me. I care just as much about them as you do, and I know that you’re scared, but we have to think this through.”

“You’re the only person who can go in after them,” Kyle says, standing right next to Liz, looking earnest in a way that always makes Michael bristle. “If you get stuck, there is nothing else that we’ll be able to do. We have to think about what to do carefully, make a plan of action and-”

Michael scoffs and turns away from them, really not liking it when Kyle starts speaking like Alex.

Michael looks out of the window, seeing the parking lot stretched out behind the hospital and he swears he sees someone that looks like Alex walking along the sidewalk, and he has to close his eyes and shakes his head. What he needs is to focus on how to help Max and Isobel, not think about Alex and the fact that he’s been avoiding him ever since their interrupted conversation in the Airstream.

It’s not like _Michael_ hasn’t been avoiding actually talking and dealing with anything else since he found Liz in the cave with Rosa and Max.

He inhales deeply and turns back to Liz and Kyle, mouth open to ask them how they’re going to make plans for this when they don’t even have a clue what _this_ really is when the door to the room opens and Mimi walks into the room, saying, “Everyone is here waiting for us.”

Maria is walking in afterwards, “Mom there is no one he-”

She stops short, staring at them in surprise, eyes darting between all of them, before stopping on Michael and hurriedly looking away to where Max and Isobel were asleep.

Her eyes go even wider.

Mimi on the other hand tilts her head looking at Max and Isobel and shakes her head. “Oh well, that’s not going to work at all.”

She turns and looks at the rest of the group, eyes falling to Michael almost immediately, and she gives him the same considering look she gave Max and Isobel.

“They got lost because they don’t have tethers,” she tells him, taking a step towards him.

“Mom-” Maria starts, but Michael steps towards Mimi.

“Tethers?” he asks, eyes dropping to the bed. “Like a bond?”

“Yes and no,” Mimi answers as she looks around the room, eyes narrowing a little. “You have bonds with everyone in this room.”

She reaches out with one hand, seemingly to touch nothing, but both Michael and Liz inhale sharply. It feels like she somehow plucked one of his heartstrings.

“A tether is like an anchor,” she continues looking back at Michael. “It keeps you in place.”

Michael just stares at her.

“And no matter how far the storms or the tides takes you both. You always come back.”

Michael licks his lips, and tries not to think about Alex, even though he knows that’s who she is talking about. Michael blinks rapidly, and looks around the room, noticing that Kyle and Liz are having what seems to be a quiet argument with Maria, and then his eyes fall to Max and Isobel and he knows that he’d do whatever it took to bring them back.

He feels someone grabbing his hand and when he looks back up it’s Mimi, who looks at him seriously. “The chain has never been broken. You know what you have to do.”

Michael stares at her, a little incredulously, wondering how it is that she knows all of this, but before he can ask her anything, he hears his name.

“Guerin,” Maria says, voice frustrated. “What is going on?”

Michael turns to her and sees Liz reaching out as if to hold her back, and Kyle reaching out to stop Liz who just exhales and stays back, crossing her arms across her chest.

Michael stares at Maria trying to figure out what to say, but Maria just seems to deflate.

“I haven’t seen any of you in weeks, and while that’s not so strange when it comes to Liz, I thought that we were going to talk about things.”

She licks her lips and looks to Max and Isobel, “But that’s not important right now, what is wrong with them? And what does it have to do with what my mom is telling you?”

Michael still doesn’t know what to say, when Mimi speaks up.

“Just open your eyes,” she says and waves around in the air in front of them. “You’ll see.”

Maria licks her lips and looks at her mom, and then around the room, and then she inhales deeply and exhales all at once, eyes falling shut.

Michael wants to ask what she’s planning to do, and then Maria opens her eyes and looks around the room with a furrowed brow, like she’s concentrating.

Her gaze sweeps across the entire room, and then it falls to the closed door, and she inhales sharply, before she blinks rapidly and looks back at her mom, who is also staring over to the closed door.

“What-?” Michael starts to ask, and then Mimi reaches out again, and this time Michael gasps, feeling a sensation like she just reached into his chest and wrapped her fist around his heart. It brings him to his knees as he wheezes, feeling like he’s not getting enough air, and it just feels wrong, like she’s touching something she shouldn’t be.

From outside in the hall there is a grunt of pain and the sound of someone falling to the floor, and as Michael presses a hand to his chest, Kyle moves to the closed door and opens it.

Michael looks up at the same second that Maria pulls her mom closer to her and straight into Alex’s eyes.

Alex falls back against one of the waiting chairs as Mimi lets the tether, or whatever it is go, and Michael inhales deeply, digging his fingers into his chest, still feeling a little bit wrong.

“What the fuck?” Alex pants out, looking at everyone in the room searchingly, like he’s avoiding looking at Michael.

“That should do the trick,” Mimi says then, and Michael looks up at her, and sees her wearing a smile on her face. “Just be careful not to get caught up in the reality of it all. Come on, Maria. We’re going to be late for the doctor’s appointment.”

Mimi walks out of the room, just like how she entered it, ruffling Alex’s hair as she walks past him.

Michael looks at Maria who is staring at him with an unreadable expression on her face.

She just shakes her head, when Michael inhales to speak and follows after her mother.

Kyle who had been helping Alex get to his feet walks back into the room, with Alex following after him, holding on to a folder tight enough that his knuckles are white.

Michael pulls himself to his feet, using the side of the bed, and talks before Kyle can say anything.

“What are you doing here?” he asks, and Alex’s gaze snaps to him almost immediately, like he couldn’t stop himself, and it makes Michael’s chest ache.

Alex licks his lips and then inhales deeply, walking around Kyle and holding the folder out to Michael.

“Kyle told me you were going to try to pull Max out of his head, and I found some files about that going through the Caulfield hard drives,” he says voice too even and monotone. “I was just going to drop them off and leave. I know it’s none of my-”

“I need you,” Michael says, not bothering to grab the files, and Alex seems to stop moving, stop _breathing_ , eyes going even wider as he stares at Michael in what seems to be confusion. “Isobel got lost herself trying to take Max out, and I can’t do it without getting lost myself without a tether.”

Alex moves then, breathing in sharply and looking down to where Max and Isobel are lying. “And what does that have to do with me?”

Michael scoffs, and Alex looks back at him, and he shakes his head before Michael can even say anything.

His eyes dart to the door and then back to Michael like he’s asking a question he already knows the answer to, but Michael ignores that, and takes a step closer to him.

“You’re my tether,” he says, and Alex makes a disbelieving noise and takes a step back, bumping into the chair on the other side of the bed and staring at Michael like he’s being impossible.

Alex shakes his head, eyes darting to Kyle and Liz and then back to Michael. “I don’t know what kind of game you think you’re playing-”

“I’m not playing any game,” Michael says, and steps even closer. “You told me that I was your family, is it really that hard to believe that I feel the same way?”

“Yes,” Alex says, voice exploding out of him like he can’t help himself. “Your family is right there,” he says pointing towards Max and Isobel. “And you made it more than clear where I stand.”

Michael waits until Alex is done speaking, to reach out and press his hand on Alex’s chest, right across his heart. 

Alex inhales sharply, and he swallows hard, staring at Michael unblinkingly.

“I never believed that Max and Isobel were actually speaking the truth when they called me their family. I always felt like the odd one out. Like they were only saying that so that I wouldn’t feel bad,” Michael starts and ignores the small noise of protest that Liz makes and just stares at Alex intently, who still hasn’t blinked, like he can’t take his eyes away from Michael.

“The only person who I believed when they called me their family was you, because I know what you grew up with, and I know you don’t throw that word around lightly. You’ve been mine since we were seventeen, and this bond between us isn’t going to go anywhere, no matter how much we try to fight it. We always end up crashing back together.”

Alex inhales shakily, licking his lips, and opens his mouth like he’s going to speak, and Michael just presses his hand harder against his chest.

“I know that there are a lot of things that we have to talk about, but I need you to believe me right now, okay?” he says, eyes darting to the bed and back to Alex. 

“I need you, please, help me.”

Alex’s exhale shudders out of him. “What if you’re wrong and it doesn’t work?”

Michael just shakes his head, “I’m not wrong.”

Alex looks at him, and Michael just stares right back, completely open, not hiding anything.

Alex closes his eyes and then inhales deeply, like he’s centering himself, and then he opens his eyes again, and looks at Michael, with a determined spark in his eyes.

“Okay, let’s do this.”


End file.
